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The old saying “Time is money” is never truer than for a salesperson. Any time you spend out of contact with your prospects — or being inefficient with your contact — is money lost from your goals. For a sales team to continuously grow its goals, every member of the team must become better, smarter, and faster each and every month.

This is no easy feat. HubSpot found in its 2017 State of Inbound report that 38 percent of salespeople find it increasingly difficult to get responses from their prospects. The only way to continuously evolve communication techniques at scale? Leveraging technology that can keep up with your prospects’ changing habits.

Prepping Your Plan of Attack

It’s 2018, so there’s a technology solution for everything: coaching your sales call, sending your favorite book to a prospect, or even having a hologram of Tupac give your elevator pitch. Given how quickly tech is evolving, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for every sales team. Before you do anything else, you need to figure out your cost of acquisition across all your sources.

Once you’ve determined your customer acquisition cost (CAC), you can start deciding what you really need. Think about your channels of communicating with prospects: Do you rely mostly on cold calling? Are targeted social ads a major source of leads?

As our company, Sapper Consulting, grew, we relied almost exclusively on our own process for generating leads. But after a few years of relying on the same methods, we decided to test some alternative tactics. For example, we found that by layering cold emails with targeted ads, we could generate a better lead that closed in less time, therefore lowering our CAC. The key is to track your CAC across your sources, then test small changes to maximize your results.

If your company is barely 6 months old, your focus is on acquiring clients. You don’t need a top-tier tech setup that requires a full marketing and sales department to stay on top of it. But what if your company is 10 years old and you’re trying to outrun a new competitor? You need to invest in a software solution or a tech partner that can find the right way to keep your leads close and your qualified leads even closer.

With your needs identified and your CAC determined, your sales team is ready to find the technology that’s right for you — and soon, you’ll be nearly unstoppable. Still feeling stuck? Here are three tips for finding tech solutions to ensure your prospects always take your calls.

1. Leave a trail of breadcrumbs.

Create a repository for all of your campaigns, lead sources, and CAC tests. This might be in the form of a customer relationship management system, but it doesn’t have to be. The market is filled with specialized sales and marketing tools that act as more than a prospect warehouse. Don’t settle for a CRM because it’s the safe option, and don’t waste time searching for the “perfect” CRM — you need that time for prospecting.

Software that focuses more on project management, such as ConnectWise, often still have CRM-style suites built in that keep track of contacts in connection with specific projects, which might be more useful than a basic Salesforce-style CRM. Find something that works for your current team and goals.

2. Invest wisely.

Spend money only on tools that automate your outreach efforts. Eliminate copying and pasting from your email process; use a tool that automates your sends. Spreadsheets shouldn’t help facilitate your cold calls; use a tool that keys up prospect information and times your approach. The perfect tool depends on your predetermined needs, but whatever those needs are, invest in tools that automate tasks and save you time.

More than 40 percent of salespeople surveyed report that prospecting is the hardest part of their process, outpacing closing at 36 percent and qualifying at 22 percent. But with the right tool, email prospecting can become less stressful, as tech can help you make the right amount of contact with the ideal time between outreach attempts. It can also help you prepare different outreach templates for various steps of your sales cycle.

3. Research time-saving tactics.

The right technology will cut down the time your team spends on basic tasks, giving you more time to spend actually connecting with prospects. Start by using a mini-tool that automatically creates contacts and sends follow-ups. Use calendar-sharing tools that eliminate time wasted scheduling meetings. Find prospect biography tools that can inform your team about each of your prospects without having to stalk each one on LinkedIn.

Finding this type of small, inexpensive tool that saves you time adds up; gradually, your toolbox will be built up and your sales team will become faster and faster. But be wary of tools that are time wasters in disguise: No tool you rely on should be increasing your CAC. Tiers of outsourcing are available, so find the tier that suits your needs.

As the sales world changes, salespeople need to keep up. Staying in touch with prospects is the key to closing a sale, and finding the right technology can ensure that you’re maintaining contact. Follow these tips to find the tech your team needs.

TJ Macke is the VP of Client Services at Sapper Consulting, which replaces cold calling for its clients. It’s cooler than it sounds. You can also follow him on Twitter @tj_macke.

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